Spreadsheets were one of the first "killer apps" of the PC age. They enabled desktop computers to move from being glorified typewriters and toys into an essential business tool. Now, a Silicon Valley start-up is changing the face of the spreadsheet, bringing it forth to the 21st century.

In my first post-university employed position, I worked for a boss who loved Excel spreadsheets. She thought nearly everything could be put into "boxes and rows", and after my first year working there, I was officially a convert. I'm big on organisation anyway, and those spreadsheet cells called to me, luring me in with their promises of order and clarity. Event planning logistics? I had a spreadsheet for that. Airline and hotel reservations for the office directors? Spreadsheet. Goals for the new fiscal year? Spreadsheet.

Even if you use Microsoft Excel regularly, there's a fair chance you might not be getting as much out of it as you can. Improve your Excel efficiency and proficiency with these basic shortcuts and functions that absolutely everyone needs to know.

In a new piece on The Cut, writer Moira Donegan reveals that she created the "Shitty Media Men" list, the anonymous collaborative Google Sheets spreadsheet naming prominent men in media who have assaulted, harassed, or otherwise used been shitty to the women they work with. The list went viral overnight and helped end, or at least interrupt, the careers of several sexual harassers.

Microsoft Excel is packed with useful data management features that don't see a lot of use, like pivot tables, index and match, and conditional formatting. If you're just using excel to sum and chart columns, this graphic can show you some other tools to help you become the spreadsheet ninja you always wanted to be.

If you're playing buzzword bingo out there, you can check AI off from your cards for about the billionth time this year. Google continues to find ways to integrate AI with changes made to their spreadsheet app Sheets. The software has been updated with AI that looks at your data and makes suggestions, by using "machine intelligence", on how to best analyse and visualise your data.

Excel has a bit of a reputation for being a tedious and fiddly pain in the arse. However, most of its foibles come down to user error. If you take the time to learn these 200 keyboard shortcuts (or just print out this cheat sheet) your life among the spreadsheets will become far rosier.

There are some excellent time-tracking apps out there, but if you prefer the comfort of good old Microsoft Excel, here's some good news. A Redditor made an Excel-based to-do list with built-in time tracking, and the template is free to download.

Web/Android: If you use an online app like Google Docs then you've long been accustomed to having multiple people collaborate on the same document or spreadsheet at once. Microsoft Excel is finally taking a step into this brave new world of simultaneous editing and adding the ability to co-author spreadsheets.

This video, from the always-great LinusTechTips, is perfect if you're upgrading or building a gaming PC before the end of the year. The beginning is a straightforward rundown of which video card you should buy, and after the TLDR section is over, the nitty gritty of price-to-performance comes in.

This week, the world celebrated Spreadsheet Day, AKA the most boring holiday devised by humankind. But wait! If you hate spreadsheets and everything they stand for, it probably means you don't know how to use them properly. Here are our most useful spreadsheet hacks for Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets; suitable for novices and experts alike.

Shopping for an Intel processor is no joke. There are enough that it can be confusing to buy the right one for your needs, whether you're gaming, working, doing video editing, need something you can overclock, and so on. Luckily this video and spreadsheet -- from Linus of LinusTechTips fame -- breaks it all down nicely.

If you've mastered the basics of Microsoft Excel and you're looking to boost your spreadsheet skills, this visual guide explains some useful tips and shortcuts you may not have tried.

Data and Microsoft Excel spreadsheets go hand in hand. Certainly, data analysts have a love affair with Excel, but other people in their organisations may not be so keen on it. While spreadsheets are useful for documenting data on business performance, they may alienate a number of employees from knowing what's going on within their companies. Here's why this matter.

Many of us live and die by our spreadsheets, but every true spreadsheet ninja has to start somewhere. These helpful, Excel shortcuts can help you save time and get more done. From highlighting every cell at once to quickly copying formulas, they're a refresher for experts and worth remembering for beginners.

Spreadsheets are a nerd's data-driven dream. For most regular people, though, they're a complicated mess. Fortunately, they don't need to be. Here's how to bend data to your will with Microsoft Excel 2016.

Creating a dynamic named range in Excel might sound like geek gibberish, but it’s a super powerful tool and really easy to use. This article explains why you need it and how to roll your own.

We all have certain times during the day when we're most focused and have more energy. These "good hours" are when we're at our most productive. Find your prime time with this tracking spreadsheet.

An oldie but a goodie, this little titbit was much appreciated when it was first posted back in 2012, so I've dug it out of the archives to share with a new generation of Excel wizards. While Excel (still) has no way to natively sort a list randomly, it's a pretty easy process with a few short steps.